Blank CD/DVD read problem - Possible solution.

Hello all,
I've been wrestling with this problem a while now, and have tried pretty near all the hints and tips on the Forum to no avail.
Having lost one or two DVD's formatting them via the open Explorer folder method and choosing the
'Live File System' or 'Mastered', only to find the DVD un-useable as it's already FULL, ie no free space.
Got to thinking about that, and realised you don't really FORMAT a DVD the way you do a hard drive,
you burn files to it. So I had a look and thought, where is the BURN option on my Windows Explorer
ribbon bar ?
This is what you should see - Mine was missing....
[See attachment - Ribbon Bar 01]

Off to the big Google in the sky to look into this, and found an article showing how to REMOVE the BURN option, so I thought, well if you can remove it, you can put it back.

This is the article, hope the mods don't mind me showing something from another Forum.
How to Remove “Burn” Button from Windows Explorer Command Bar in Windows 7? - Tweaking with Vishal

If you read through it, things are quite straight forward, even though it is a REGISTRY poke about, so
make sure you BACKUP the registry first.
Assuming most of you have either the Home Basic or Home Premium versions of Windows 7, the 2nd part of the article is more relevant.

Following the instructions as if I was going to REMOVE the BURN button, I was surprised to find I had the DWORD 'NoCDBurning' already in my registry !! [How it got there I have no idea] I took the simple step of deleting the whole DWORD entry !!

After a re-boot the results were -

First DVD I put into my drive, up pops the expected FORMAT choice dialogue box.
Step one passed ok.
Dragged a few files and odds and ends to the DVD
The vital thing here is the "Close Session" button appearing.
This is what you should see -
[See attatchment Ribbon Bar 02]

This closes down the burn operation so you can add more files at a later time to the DVD
Step two passed ok.
[I have added files to the same DVD four different times now so things are working ok.]

I'm not sure if this will work for you, but it's worth checking out that DWORD entry and finding out
what the setting is on your machine.

All the best,
Mick C.

P.S. I've been using DVD-R/CD-R and CD-RW for this testing.

One word of caution, UDF formatted discs (RW) have a history of losing format and/or data. This goes back many years and includes Nero InCD, Roxio Drag to disc, etc. It would appear these discs can be used like the old floppies and to add, remove data, reformat, use again, etc. But its an iffy proposition. Best suggestion, if you want to use UDF, do not have your only copy of any data on one of these.

My take is if I want to put it on a disc, I use an "R" disc only. Discs are now relatively cheap so 10 or 15 cents (US) for something to save data to is insignificant. The other option is to use a flash drive instead of an RW disc, you can then read, write, rewrite, etc.

I also use a regular burning program (I have the full Nero suite that I use in my recording studio). The free and popular Imgburn and CDBurnerXP are other options.

fireberd said:

One word of caution, UDF formatted discs (RW) have a history of losing format and/or data. This goes back many years and includes Nero InCD, Roxio Drag to disc, etc. It would appear these discs can be used like the old floppies and to add, remove data, reformat, use again, etc. But its an iffy proposition. Best suggestion, if you want to use UDF, do not have your only copy of any data on one of these.

My take is if I want to put it on a disc, I use an "R" disc only. Discs are now relatively cheap so 10 or 15 cents (US) for something to save data to is insignificant. The other option is to use a flash drive instead of an RW disc, you can then read, write, rewrite, etc.

I also use a regular burning program (I have the full Nero suite that I use in my recording studio). The free and popular Imgburn and CDBurnerXP are other options.

Hi fireberd, good points. For me it's a temporary measure anyway. External drives for long term stuff.
The point of the post was the failed recognition of ANY blank media. No idea why my system went like that, but this "solution" worked for me.
Mick C.